Anil Menon to make 1st spaceflight July 14, 2026
Anil Menon, a NASA astronaut with roots in India and Ukraine, is heading to space for the first time on July 14, 2026.
He'll launch from Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts and spend eight months on the International Space Station, working on research that could help humans reach the Moon and Mars.
Harvard and Stanford trained physician astronaut
Born in Minneapolis, Menon has degrees from Harvard and Stanford in neurobiology, engineering, and medicine.
He's worked as Nasa's expedition flight surgeon at both NASA and SpaceX's first flight surgeon before Nasa selected Menon as part of its 2021 astronaut class.
He graduated as an astronaut in 2024; on this mission, he'll study how living in microgravity affects the human body (and test technology for future deep-space travel) before returning to Earth in spring 2027.